Well let us go back to 1988. I met the great R H Patil. He was talking about setting up a retail debt market. I was impressed.

Come to 1993 I met RHP and he wanted us to committ Rs. 2 crores to buy a WDM – no not weapons of mass desctruction. Whole Sale Debt Market.

RHP thought he would be able to set up a WDM and a RDM – retail debt market. Well, bechara RHP, RBI had other ideas. We still do not have a retail or wholesale debt market. Our stupid debt market is still done on phone and then recorded on the system. Completely unlike the equity market.

Could the government have done anything? Did Jet Lee do anything for developing the secondary market? No. Did NS do anything to develop the secondary market? Of course not.

However, one very ambitious SEBI Chairman said “if a company has working capital exceeding Rs. 20000 crores, they should raise it from the capital market”. Brilliant baboo(n) statement. No clue what it meant. The Chairman has retired if I am not wrong. Great.

Now the great NS says “it is suggested to SEBI that 35% of a company should be the minimum listed”. Typical baboo(n) bullshit. Nobody knows what it means. Nobody knows what it is supposed to achieve.

Why did she put it in the Budget? well, well. She did not. Some baboo(n) must have put it. What will it do for the budget? nothing.

What will it do for the liquidity of the said shares? Nothing.

Will the share prices of good listed companies go down? Well it could.

If I were the promoter of PnG with about 90% closely held and 10% listed what would I do? Well I would ask some friends to buy a few shares and then take the company private. What is funny is that there is a suggestion that 25% of the listed company should be held by the public. Which means PnG, Hul, Colpal,…..blah blah should have listed down to 25% public. They have not. Hdfc insurance, Hdfc Amc, Reliance Nippon,….the list is endless. However this stupid rule was never taken seriously.

So why did Nirmala maami come out with such a hari-brained rule? what did she mean by this? I don’t know. Still searching to find out the reason.

In case you find out the reason please do tell me.